


go to the exit of the maze with me

by Dienerys



Category: C-Pop, Desert5, 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Kissing, M/M, Maze was the happiest song ever tbh, Mutual Pining, No Angst, Oblivious Wenxuan, Pining, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:34:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25839667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dienerys/pseuds/Dienerys
Summary: “Really want to take his mouth and seal it shut”Yao Mingming left out the part that he’d like to seal Hu Wenxuan’s mouth shut with his own.It takes Hu Wenxuan a little while to figure that out.
Relationships: Hu Wenxuan/Yao Mingming
Kudos: 6





	go to the exit of the maze with me

**Author's Note:**

> i love relationships like this. i’m also writing sth for huaiwei/hanyu cause the sniping and teasing is 10/10

Hu Wenxuan watches as Yao Mingming practices.

He’s not even sure when it started or why, but him and Mingming developed some kind of love-hate relationship characterized by verbally attacking each other.

Well, scratch that. He knows how it started. It started because Hu Wenxuan didn’t know how to get someone’s attention like an actual adult so he resorted to dissing Yao Mingming like a child tugging on pigtails.

The first time he had jokingly insulted the older trainee, Mingming had looked surprised but then fired back something about Wenxuan’s facial expression.

“Why don’t you just squeeze me to death?” Mingming says during practice, when they reach the ending pose. Wenxuan makes a face.

Li Zhenning begins to cackle. Zhenning seems to find their interactions the most entertaining out of the group.

“Wenxuan probably would love to take his head and and fit it into your neck,” Guan Yue says with a teasing wink in Wenxuan’s direction.

Wenxuan curses Guan Yue and regrets telling the older trainee about his burgeoning crush. But he plays along and briefly rests his chin on Mingming’s shoulder, not going to pass up such an opportunity.

Mingming smells like a combination of sweat and whatever shampoo he uses and Wenxuan pulls away before he can do something impulsively stupid and bury his face in Mingming’s neck.

“This isn’t right,” Wenxuan laughs and makes a face. He ends up subconsciously standing closer to Mingming again, unaware until the latter points it out.

“What are you doing?” Mingming laughs shakily, “don’t lean so close, go out a little, I’m too afraid to move”

Wenxuan ignores him and adjusts his arms, earning a shove from Mingming. He ignores what it does to his heart.

At a later practice he complains about Mingming being fierce. He’s not even totally sure what’s coming out of his mouth, he never is when it comes to Yao Mingming. 

“Mingming isn’t fierce,” Guan Yue says gleefully.

“He’s only fierce to you,” Zhenning pipes up.

Wenxuan catches the glance the pair exchange and can’t help but wonder what it means.

He wonders about Mingming a lot.

The other trainee is a skilled dancer and an experienced trainee and Hu Wenxuan only has a few months of experience.

More often than not, Mingming would pull him to the side or drag him into an empty practice room and help him with the dance.

Wenxuan is not an idiot, despite what some people might think. He knows Mingming spends more time working with him than with any of the others.

Guan Yue doesn’t need any help, but sometimes Zhenning and Su Yuhang get lost. Mingming will step in and help help them, but he definitely helps Wenxuan the most and leaves the others mostly to Guan Yue.

There’s always something knowing in Yue’s gaze as Mingming drags Wenxuan into an empty practice room with complaints about his clumsy dancing and Wenxuan always regrets having told the older trainee anything.

Watching Mingming perform the hip roll from Retreat, even jokingly, has Wenxuan’s eyes glued to the mirror.

He knows he’s screwed after Mingming emerges from the dressing room clad in black with those blue contacts and dark liner around his eyes.

“Something on my face?” Mingming says in his mock-aggressive tone.

Wenxuan shakes himself out of staring and narrows his eyes.

“Your nose,” he says, “seems particularly large today”

Mingming snorts and shakes his head as they join the rest of the group on the stage.

Wenxuan knows he’s still staring based on the amused looks Yue keeps shooting in his direction.

When Mingming tells Teacher Tsai that they missed her, despite knowing she is old enough to be Mingming’s mother and it doesn’t mean anything, the jealousy that curls in his stomach leaves him with a cold feeling that he covers by loudly complaining.

He wasn’t paying attention to any of the others as they danced, so he’s shocked when Guan Yue admits to having forgotten the moves.

“Mingming,” Teacher Tsai says. Wenxuan feels the older trainee tense next to him and he can’t help but feel anxiety crawling through his own body. He knows the other boy has faced setback after setback. When she compliments him, Wenxuan feels as relieved as if it were him receiving the praise. “I don’t know if it’s cause of today’s eye makeup, but you can feel the aura...”

Wenxuan can’t help but agree.

“Very fierce,” he says. Mingming laughs and smiles at him.

The mood somber when it comes to Guan Yue. Wenxuan feels irrationally guilty. Maybe if he hadn’t monopolized Mingming’s attention, Yue would have been able to work on memorizing the moves rather than have to help the others.

It’s hard watching the normally bubbly and cheerful Guan Yue break down into tears and Wenxuan panics. He knows the thoughts in his head, but he’s never been great at comforting people.

“Yueyue, don’t feel sad anymore,” he says, “if others are good, does that mean we’re lacking a lot?” even as the words come out of his mouth he knows they don’t make sense. It’s even worse when Yao Mingming turns to him in confusion.

“What do you mean? This sentence doesn’t make sense”

Wenxuan bites his lip in frustration as everyone laughs. He was trying to be serious. He doesn’t mind people laughing at him, but this isn’t him trying to be funny or ridiculous and he’s tired enough that it bothers him more than normal.

“I’m just saying,” the frustration slips into his tone and he notices Mingming look surprised, “others are good, we are also very good”

That seems to end the conversation. The others say some more things to Guan Yue, but Wenxuan can feel Mingming’s eyes on him and the way Mingming tries to engage him in laughing with the group but Wenxuan isn’t feeling it.

“Xuanxuan,” Mingming catches up with him in the hallway after they leave.

“What?” he asks, tone sharper than normal and lacking the usual playful lilt. Mingming recoils slightly, eyes wide.

“Are you alright?”

“Fine,” Wenxuan says, not really wanting to get into it with Mingming, “just tired”

He can tell Mingming doesn’t quite believe him, but seems to let it slide.

“Get some rest then,” he says, tilting his head. He’s still wearing his dark eye makeup and it’s a lot for Wenxuan’s tired brain to process. “You know I’m only joking with you right?”

Wenxuan squeezes his eyes shut. He really doesn’t want to think about it anymore. He just wants to go to sleep.

“I know. Goodnight, Mingming-ge,” Wenxuan says and turns to leave. 

They don’t talk much the next day as they prepare for the stage. Wenxuan is the type who is quick to bounce back and it’s all forgotten as he throws himself into the performance. 

When he comes in second and Mingming ends up being third, he feels torn between pride and feeling disappointment on Mingming’s behalf.

“Hey,” Mingming says as they head back from the ranking announcement, “you alright?”

“I should be the one asking you,” Wenxuan raises an eyebrow. Mingming shrugs.

“It’s not the worst,” he sighs, “I did my best and that’s what matters”

Wenxuan doesn’t really believe him. In typical Hu Wenxuan fashion he acts before thinking and the next thing he knows, he has his arms around Mingming’s neck.

The older trainee is slightly shorter than him. After a beat, Mingming relaxes into him and returns the embrace, pressing his face against Wenxuan’s shoulder.

Wenxuan can feel their heartbeats sync to match each other’s rhythm. He doesn’t know how long they stand there locked in an embrace but it’s not long enough before Mingming pulls away.

“Thanks,” Mingming smiles crookedly and it steals the breath from Wenxuan’s lungs. He brushes Wenxuan’s hair from his face. “It’s a relief to be done at least,” he says, slinging his arm around Wenxuan’s shoulder as he leads them to the backstage area, “now we can watch the other performances”

Wenxuan misses Mingming’s warmth as they make their way back but he feels a bit better when Mingming sits next to him.

He knows he’s screwed.

Their interactions remain largely the same: verbal sniping and teasing insults and Wenxuan settles into the familiarity.

At least with this he knows what’s expected and there’s no room for him to misstep or do anything to give himself and his feelings away.

That is, until the third mission.

It’s the night of him being voted out of Fire and into Maze.

It’s nothing against Guan Yue or Ding Feijun, Wenxuan is upset that he lost the chance to perform the song his Citizen Producers chose for him and that he was shuffled into a song that is totally wrong for his image.

He’s also hurt that his team would do that.

He knows it’s the nature of the competition but he can’t help but wonder why they voted him out. He’s not a fit for Maze, that’s for sure.

Wenxuan is sitting with his back against the wall of an empty practice room. The camera in this practice room broke the first week of filming and the staff never bothered to fix it, claiming they would eventually, but it became obvious it was their way of leaving the trainees a private place to regroup.

The tears he has been holding back since the revelation of him being voted out begin to slide down his cheeks now that he’s alone and the cameras are off.

It hurts to think it seems to be so easy to vote him out.

He doesn’t realize the door had opened and someone had entered until a warmth settles against his side.

Wenxuan opens his eyes wide and glances at the newcomer before quickly wiping his face.

“You can cry, you know,” Yao Mingming says softly.

“It’s fine,” Wenxuan says. Mingming’s soft expression breaks something inside Wenxuan and the tears begin to fall again, unrestrained. 

Mingming draws him into his arms and pulls him close.

Wenxuan, despite his loud fake crying, is actually a very silent crier when he’s crying for real. No heaving sobs or devastated wails, just a slight shaking of his shoulders as the tears soak through Mingming’s sweater.

He’s not sure how long he cries on Mingming’s shoulder, but the tears stop eventually leaving him with puffy eyes and swollen cheeks and a bone-deep exhaustion.

But he does feel a bit better.

He looks up at Mingming’s face. The older trainee’s face is blurry at the edges after all that crying.

Wenxuan has the stray thought that Yao Mingming is beautiful.

Only half-aware of what he’s doing, Wenxuan leans up and lightly brushes his lips against Mingming’s before dropping his head back down onto the white-clad shoulder.

He feels Mingming’s breath hitch and the arms tighten around him. He’s halfway to falling asleep, so he’s not sure if he imagined the warm press of lips against his forehead.

Wenxuan wakes the next morning in his dorm with his head feeling heavy but his heart feeling lighter.

He doesn’t remember making his way back to the dorm and wonders how he got there.

As he reaches the Maze practice room, Guan Yue corners him.

For being so short he can be rather intimidating Wenxuan decides, not liking the gleeful glint in his eyes.

“So, Mingming carried you back to your room last night,” Yue winks. “I was coming back from practice when I saw him”

Wenxuan flushes not just at the fact Guan Yue saw, but that Mingming actually carried him all the way back to the dorms.

“What were you guys doing?” Yue’s smile is bright with the promise of gossip and Wenxuan shifts uncomfortably.

“Just talking,” he looks away, “I must have fallen asleep”

Yue looks mildly disappointed for a brief second. Honestly, Wenxuan wonders if the shorter trainee is ever upset for more than a few minutes.

Maze goes well. Hu Wenxuan even got the third most amount of votes which was a pleasant surprise. He even had fun, all things considered. And he supposes his only real competition was Guan Yue whereas if he had stayed in Tinder, he would have had to go up against crowd favorites and perpetual top 9 trainees Chen Youwei, Lian Huaiwei and Jia Yi.

But it doesn’t change the fact that he really, really didn’t fit the song and he knows it’s going to hurt him in ranking evaluations.

And it does.

Wenxuan is twenty-second.

He’s grateful he’s at least not twenty-one.

Hu Chunyang’s face contorts in a pained expression before falling. Li Wenhan hardly reacts, except to look down.

Wenxuan’s gaze finds Yao Mingming who looks both stunned and heartbroken.

He looks away.

Chunyang comes barreling towards him. Wenxuan finds himself having to comfort the younger trainee.

“I can’t bear to part with you,” Xia Hanyu says in his deep voice as he hugs him. Somewhere along the line, they had grown close too.

The reality suddenly hits him with a force that leaves him breathless: he’s really going to miss everyone he met.

Suddenly overcome with painful feelings and not wanting to cry in front of everyone and the cameras, Wenxuan escapes from the room.

Wenxuan is walking back to the dorms when a silhouette catches his attention. Mingming gestures for him to follow and Wenxuan obeys, wondering what Mingming could want.

The older trainee leads him into one of the bathrooms and into a stall. Wenxuan is baffled for a brief moment before he feels the press of soft lips against his own.

Mingming is a very mild-mannered person, more reactionary than proactive, this is such a different side to him that Wenxuan can’t help but be surprised.

He’s regretful that things ended up this way. That it’s only after he’s been eliminated that he realized his feelings were mutual.

Mingming pulls back and Wenxuan blinks down at him.

“Is that the best you can do?” Wenxuan sometimes hates his instinctive desire to sass.

But Mingming’s eyes flash with something almost predatory and his hand curls around the back of Wenxuan’s neck as he pulls him down into a harder, open-mouthed kiss.

The kiss leaves Wenxuan breathless and weak in the knees and he responds by wrapping his arms around Mingming’s neck.

They kiss until their lips are swollen and they’re trying to catch their breath.

Wenxuan knows Mingming is going to debut and Wenxuan is leaving the next morning.

Suddenly, the bathroom door opens and they end up pulling apart.

“Xuanxuan?” Xu Bingchao’s voice echoes through the room. 

“I’m pretty sure I saw him come in here,” he thinks it might be Li Zhenning.

Wenxuan clears his throat.

“Yeah, I’ll be out in a minute”

“Okay!”

The door opens again before shutting.

“I should probably go first,” Wenxuan says, “I’ll lead them away so you can leave”

Mingming hesitates. He looks like he wants to say something.

“I’ll see you when we come back for the finale,” Wenxuan says, feeling his chest constrict. Would Mingming wait for him?

The older boy’s catlike eyes study him.

“I’ll wait for you then,” Mingming says softly, as if reading his thoughts.

Wenxuan nods before slipping out of the stall.

He meets up with Xu Bingchao and Li Zhenning in the hallway, leading them down the hall and away from the bathroom.

Hu Wenxuan doesn’t get a chance to see Mingming before he’s being bundled into a van with Xu Bingchao, Ding Feijun and Shi Mingze and sent home.

He watches the Dachang campus get smaller from the window. Ding Feijun begins to cry and the other trainees comfort him.

They end up being slated to debut as a fan-made project group, and spend three days in the Tengger Desert along with Gu Landi.

Wenxuan doesn’t have much time to think about Mingming until they’re on the road to Dachang again for the finale.

He wonders if Mingming waited for him.

The trainees are herded and rushed and Wenxuan doesn’t have time to talk to anyone really.

Hu Chunyang hugs him quickly before being pulled away and Li Wenhan nods in his direction.

He sees Mingming in the crowd. The older trainee looks right at him and there’s a look of relief and something else that flickers through his gaze.

Mingming is chosen to debut with XNINE and Wenxuan is proud of him.

After filming is finished and the trainees are left alone without cameras and staff, Wenxuan feels a flicker of disappointment and a sharp stab of pain at the fact Mingming didn’t seek him out.

Xu Bingchao comes up behind him and wraps an arm around his neck, pulling him back against him.

“You alright Xuanxuan?” Bingchao asks softly. Wenxuan sighs and leans back against Bingchao’s taller frame.

During the excursion to plant trees, they had bonded over being kicked into Maze. When they were informed they were going to debut as Desert5, Wenxuan had been very happy and they had only gotten closer especially since they ended up being assigned roommates for the duration of their debut.

Xu Bingchao is a gentle giant and although he’ll never admit it, Wenxuan always ended up acting cute around him. Bingchao tolerates it with his characteristic gentleness.

“Yeah,” Wenxuan pouts, “just tired”

Bingchao nods, chin brushing Wenxuan’s hair.

“It’s been a long day,” he agrees, “I’m ready to go to sleep”

Wenxuan crinkles his nose.

“Don’t snore tonight and keep me awake again!”

“I don’t snore!” Bingchao responds.

Wenxuan turns to look up at him with a raised brow.

“You do snore”

“I don’t snore”

“You do!”

They bicker before Bingchao is called away. Wenxuan realizes there’s just a few trainees left and he doesn’t see Yao Mingming in the group.

He can’t help the slightly bitter feeling as he leaves the room.

Suddenly a hand wraps around his wrist and Wenxuan finds himself being dragged down the hall and pressed against a wall before a pair of warm lips press against his.

Wenxuan relaxes into the kiss and wraps his arms around Mingming’s neck. He feels settled in a way he hasn’t felt for awhile.

He lets out an exhale as Mingming breaks the kiss to nip lightly at Wenxuan’s jaw and down his neck. 

Wenxuan grips Mingming’s shoulders and lets his head fall backwards as he closes his eyes.

“You’ve gotten close with Bingchao,” Mingming says against his neck.

“Jealous?” Wenxuan teases.

“Yes”

The frank response startles Wenxuan, who blushes red.

Mingming pulls away and looks at him. His dark eyes bore into Wenxuan.

“I’ve missed you,” he says softly.

Wenxuan nods.

“I’ve missed you too”

“I know it won’t be easy, but I want us to be a thing,” Mingming says, sharp gaze boring into Wenxuan’s and causing his heart to race. “I don’t want to worry about Bingchao or Mingze or Landi taking you away from me, I want you to be mine”

Wenxuan inhales sharply before nodding. He responds by kissing Mingming gently.

Hu Wenxuan doesn’t know if they’ll last or if this will even work, but he does know he’s willing to do anything for Yao Mingming.

**Author's Note:**

> “Xuanxuan...” Gu Landi pokes at his neck with a laugh, “where did that come from?”
> 
> Wenxuan flushes and covers his neck.
> 
> “It’s...I don’t know what you’re talking about”
> 
> Landi looks thoughtful.
> 
> “Let’s see...it was either Bingbing or Yao Mingming. I’m leaning towards Ming-ge”
> 
> Wenxuan flares red.
> 
> “How did you come to that conclusion?” 
> 
> Landi snickers. “I saw Mingming dragging you down the hallway”
> 
> Wenxuan sighs and shakes his head, but he can’t help the small smile that curls his lips. Landi pats him on the shoulder.
> 
> “I’m glad. Took you both long enough”
> 
> Gu Landi leaves Wenxuan sputtering in surprise.


End file.
